628: Chapter 628 The Pit from 360,000 Years Ago

Zhang He's call came in at three in the morning.

Li Heng was lying on the office sofa watching a variety show. Xiao Hei was curled up next to his neck, its dark gold patterns flickering on and off, its frequency perfectly synchronized with the vibrations coming from deep underground.

"Found something?"

Zhang He's voice on the other end was a bit raspy, sounding as if he had stayed up for several nights in a row.

"Dean, I've used every resource available. Earliest geological records, ice core data, fossil dating—I even asked several national geological research institutes to help with the calculations."

"Cut to the chase."

"367,200 years ago, a global extinction event occurred on Earth."

Li Heng pressed pause.

"What level?"

"Higher than any known event." The sound of Zhang He flipping through papers came through the receiver. "Ice core data shows that within about forty-eight hours of that time point, the global average temperature first surged by 1,600 degrees, then plummeted to below minus 200 degrees. One-third of the sea level evaporated within the same day and then re-condensed. Atmospheric oxygen dropped from twenty-one percent straight to zero, lasting for at least seventy-two hours."

"Zero?"

"Yes, absolute zero. Not a decrease, but a total disappearance. It recovered after seventy-two hours."

Li Heng sat up.

"In other words, on a certain day 367,200 years ago, every oxygen-dependent life form on Earth died once, and then things were rebooted."

"More than that." Zhang He's voice dropped even lower. "There's an anomaly in the geological layers. A type of mineral crystal never seen before appeared in the rock strata from that era, distributed extremely evenly across the globe. I had someone perform a compositional analysis."

"The result?"

"The composition is consistent with Xiao Hei's exoskeleton fragments. A ninety-seven percent match."

Li Heng looked down at Xiao Hei by his neck.

Xiao Hei lay still, but its golden cyclopean eye opened a sliver, staring at the communicator.

"Anything else?"

"Yes. This is the eeriest part." Zhang He took a deep breath. "Directly beneath that layer of crystals, at the same depth globally, there is an extremely precise cutting mark."

"A cut?"

"The Earth's crust was sliced through by an external force in that era. It wasn't an earthquake or plate tectonics; it was artificial. The cut surface is as smooth as a mirror."

Li Heng fell silent.

"Dean, my personal assessment—367,200 years ago, something landed on Earth. It cleared the Earth's surface once, then sliced open the crust and tucked itself inside."

"Your assessment is quite accurate."

Li Heng picked up Xiao Hei and placed it on the table. Xiao Hei instinctively lay down next to the silver fragment, its entire body pressed against it, the flickering frequency of its patterns quickening.

"Zhang He, have someone encrypt and seal all the raw data from the geological report. Everyone involved in the analysis must sign a non-disclosure agreement."

"They've already signed."

"Also, notify the representatives of each country that Kunlun Immortal Mountain might leave the surface again starting tomorrow. Tell them not to panic, not to cause trouble, and not to pull any stunts while I'm away."

"What if someone doesn't listen?"

"Let the Bull Demon King sweep their doorstep."

The call ended.

Li Heng leaned back on the sofa, staring at the ceiling.

367,200 years ago, a being from the same race as Xiao Hei treated Earth like a delivery room. It sliced open the crust, burrowed inside, modified the core, and wrapped itself into a cocoon. The three pillars pinned into Mars, Venus, and Earth are alarm clocks, and the gate of gui xu is the exit.

Everything was for the sake of hatching.

The entire Solar System, from beginning to end, is a birthing bed.

"Quite the grand undertaking."

Xiao Hei's cyclopean eye suddenly turned toward the window.

Outside the window, the silver-white in the sky thickened.

It wasn't moonlight. The moon was in another direction.

The silver-white spread from the edge of the firmament toward the center, slowly but visibly to the naked eye.

The floor shook again.

The third time.

It was shorter than the previous two but more forceful; even the orange peels on the table bounced up.

Xiao Hei's mouth opened.

A tiny bubble spat out from its mouth, hovering in the air, reflecting an image within.

The image was blurry, but Li Heng could make out the silhouette.

It was a pair of closed eyes.

Very large eyes.

Eyes that had been tightly closed for 367,200 years, hidden beneath a 2,400-kilometer metal cocoon shell.

The eyelids were moving.

Li Heng reached out and popped the bubble.

"What's the rush?"

He stood up, walked to the window, and yawned at the silver-white sky.

His phone rang.

A message from Xie Wangsheng: "Dean, the latest data has arrived from Neptune. The gate of gui xu has begun to change from silver-white again. Patterns have appeared on the gate."

A high-definition photo was attached.

Li Heng zoomed in to look.

On the surface of the gate of gui xu, a massive spiral pattern emerged on the silver-white door panel.

In the exact center of the spiral, two words were engraved.

Li Heng recognized these two words.

He had seen them on the stone tablets of the Chihuang Realm. He had seen them on the black stone slabs in the Wang family's treasury. He had seen them on the cocoon walls in the Earth's core.

"Go Home."